Sound Sync

VFX and Motion Graphics student at the University of South Wales - first year

[ebmsound]

Evaluation

After getting this brief I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do I had to just wait for an idea to come to me. After looking through motion graphics and live action sound syncs I made the decision to film it because I think I could make it look quite nice. The main thing I wanted to do was ensure that it was different from everyone else’s which is why I went down a different route. However I also wanted it to have a common theme so that it wasn’t just random videos in a sequence. I knew from the start that I wanted to create something slower and more thought provoking than other pieces using a different type of music. I don’t think I accomplished this as much as I could have as the music I chose wasn’t too emotional at the start. I was still quite excited at the start of this project because I enjoy syncing up sound for example in my advertising editing project I really like the parts that match the music so I thought I could do a good job of this project.

I’ve noticed I often direct my ideas for projects towards a more thoughtful piece that makes the viewer feel something. I feel like it isn’t good unless people get an emotion from it. At the start of this project I just dedicated my thoughts to thinking of visuals that would match this emotion. The thing I thought of was a sad rainy day, although I don’t think my video reflects this well.

What I like about my sound sync is that it is different from everyone else’s. I’m glad I made the creative decision to desaturate the whole video so it is all in black and white because I think this adds to the mood. I used a monochrome faded 50 filter which gave it quite a soft feeling which I liked. It was difficult to match each colour grade for every shot because the lighting would change. When I asked for feedback though, I was offered no improvement ideas so it must be okay. I think my favourite shot is the one where I step on a stick to make the crack sound. I just like the whole camera angle and how quick my foot comes in.

Some new skills I’ve picked up completing this project are my cinematography methods and use of filters and effects in After Effects as I had to search through the library to find things that would fit in with the theme e.g. camera lens blur. For this project I also could practice using green screen as I downloaded a green screen rain effect to use and so I used my knowledge from Geraint’s lessons and applied it to this project.

There are a few things I don’t like about my sound sync. One of them is that I can notice some parts aren’t perfectly sound synced and the parts that are it’s really hard to tell, for some reason it looks a bit off when it isn’t. I also don’t like that one instrument or sound has a variety of shots attached to it. This isn’t too much of a negative but I could’ve used the clips for other parts of the song. Another thing I would change is the footage of me, it’s a bit out of place. The most challenging part was actually filming which took a while and I didn’t have a tripod with me which made everything a lot harder as I couldn’t film where I wanted to and couldn’t keep the camera stable.

Overall, I’m quite happy with the end result because I think that it is well synced up and looks pretty good. I also managed my time quite well on this project so I had time to make adjustments but I think I would rather just film the shots again which would’ve been difficult as I filmed them in Stafford where I had a car so I couldn’t reshoot them. I’m glad it didn’t rain in the end for the shots because it meant I could practice my green screen abilities without getting wet and I probably got a better result. So I think it was a good project and I learnt a lot.

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Final Draft

I think this is my final draft as I’ve made all the little tweaks I wanted to. Also, there’s some unintentional fluttering at the end but I think it actually fits in with the music so I’m going to keep it.

I decided not to use the instrumental version in the end because it didn’t sound as good as the start of the original.

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Draft 2

After colour grading each shot to make it look more like a cloudy day and adding rain to some shots. This is my second draft. I want to add more rain to the shots of me and make the end sync up a bit more.

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Draft 1

This is the first unfinished draft I showed Geraint and Jason. They both said they really liked it but I don’t need to cut up the end part, I should join them together. Apart from that they didn’t give me any other comments to improve on.

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Process

It didn’t rain the day I wanted it to so I had to add the rain in. Adding the green screen rain to the footage was quite easy after learning from Geraint’s lessons. This was quite a quick test but I ended up using it as the actual clip. I did it by using the Keylight effect in After Effects.

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Set Up

These were some of the set ups I had to create which was quite fun to do. The water in the saucepan was so hard to make it look like droplets. I would’ve used a pipette or something but I don’t have one.

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If it isn’t raining on the one day I need to shoot then I may need to resort to this green screen rain effect and add it in post.

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Found this instrumental version so I can make the video longer if it feels too short (doesn’t sound as good as the original).

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Visual Ideas

Start (evenly spaced splashes) - could be drops from a drain pipe (could speed it up when editing) also sounds like tapping on glass, could start with a hand tapping on a rainy window

The beat DOO DOO DOO DOO consistent background - windscreen wipers keep the beat

Crunch sound - stepping on branches (by the ford/castle)

Bass guitar (doo, do do doo) - skipping rocks? opening umbrella?

Main guitar - what could be a guitar string? facial expressions - film just a field then record a different facial expression and cut it to the rhythm (could work for bass)

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Final Music Idea

When I was just tapping the beat of the wipers I tried to think of songs that would fit in with it. After searching through a few songs by searching ‘sad slow instrumentals’, I thought of this song, Stolen Dance by Milky Chance and I think it could be the song I use for the final submission. I would use the first 25 seconds. I need to split the song up into sounds that I can associate with an object. This could be a difficult task because it is an actual song not just random pops and whooshes.

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Visual Idea

I had an idea to use windscreen wipers for the main drum rhythm even though i haven’t chosen my song yet I’m going to try and find one that fits in with this rhythm. I got this idea from the film ‘The Shape of Water’ because it had a really rainy scene where the camera follows water droplets down a window and I thought it looked really detailed and deep. Because I don’t have a car in Cardiff, I asked my mum to send a video of the windscreen wipers of my car at home so I knew the speed of bass I’d need to find.

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Music Idea 4

I really want to use an actual song for the sound sync just because I think it’s nicer to use. Copyright-free music usually doesn’t sound grear. If I’m continuing with the rainy day calm theme I was thinking of using an alt-j song, something like the one above. I think the song is a bit too acoustic which would be difficult to visualise.

Or something more like this:

I think alt-j’s music always provokes emotion in me and so I think it would for others.

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Music Idea 3

Then, I thought to use a Radiohead song from their In Rainbows album as it is really atmospheric and relaxing. The song above is one of my favourites from the album as an instrumental which has quite a nice quick beat. I like when the guitar comes in so I would probably crop it to there.

I also really like the feelings that this song gives across. My initial thoughts for the instruments is possibly the triangle ting sound could be lights turning on?

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NO LYRICS [Piano, Ambient, Electronic, Vibes, Hang Drum, Etc.], a playlist on Spotify

This is a collection ranges from electronic vibes, to fast pace hang drum, to instrumentals. Great for work if lyrics distract you.

I found this playlist on Spotify that is helpful in suggesting some songs I could use as they have a similar feeling to them.

[ebmsound]

Idea!

I really want to make something different that isn’t really upbeat and happy. I want to try and make something that will sync up but with a more emotional, slower song.

One idea I had was to do it on a rainy day and in black and white. I think this will look quite thought-provoking if I use the right song. I’m really happy with this idea because I think water droplets can look really pretty and I can use items like umbrellas and splashes from feet in puddles as the visuals to match the music.

I was thinking I could do some shots in slow motion to make it more atmospheric and it would be a nice way of syncing up the sound without obvious changes. I could just show a slow motion picture of someone turning around maybe or laughing whenever there’s a slow part.

One problem I would have with it being a rainy day is that you can’t see rain on camera and so I could add it in later so it is more obvious.

This playlist encouraged this idea:

https://open.spotify.com/user/chillhopmusic/playlist/74sUjcvpGfdOvCHvgzNEDO

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Moby

Moby was one of the most controversial figures in techno music, alternately praised for bringing a face to the notoriously anonymous electronic genre and scorned by hordes of techno artists and fans for diluting and trivializing the form.

Music Idea 2

Another idea I had was to use Moby’s music because it’s really nice and atmospheric. I shuffled through a few of his songs and my favourites are probably still Porcelain and Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad and Extreme Ways. These are all options I could use.

[ebmsound]

I watched this video a while ago and just came across it again and I think it’s really interesting as an idea to match up words with music. I like how it shows the natural rhythm we have in day to day life.